Quick Breads

Before we begin, if a yeast bread requires yeast to rise, what do you think a quick bread requires to rise?

List off as many kinds of quick breads as possible below and be prepared to share.

The 5 ingredients required in all quick breads:

Flour: The Foundation
Without flour baked goods would fall apart. When mixed with liquid, protein in the flour forms and elastic web of gluten. The higher the protein content and the more mixing that is done, the thicker the gluten becomes. Light, fluffy cakes and quick breads benefit from low-protein cake flour and a minimum of mixing after the flour is added.

flour

when flour is mixed

more protein flour =

less protein flour =

Sugar: Flavor, Texture, and Color
sugar isn’t just sweet; it makes baked goods tender, moist and crisp and yields a rich brown color. Remove sugar from baking and you are left with dense, dry and pale product. Add extra sugar and the baked good will become crisper and browner. Add too much and the cake will not set. Excess sugar causes cookies to spread too much.

sugar does 5 things

no sugar =

extra sugar =

too much sugar =

Leavener: The Rise
Whether it’s a chewy chocolate chip cookie or an airy ring of angel food cake, all baked goods rely on leaveners to lighten a dough. The most basic leavener is air – it gets trapped in the web of gluten. Water also acts as a leavener – as water in the dough evaporates from the heat of the oven it steams and fills the air bubbles even more. The expansion can be intensified by adding chemical leaveners such as baking soda and baking powder – both create carbon dioxide that increase the volume of the bubbles again.

leaveners are

air

water

chemical leaveners

baking soda and powder

Fat: Leavener, Tederizer, and Flavor Enhancer
Baked goods with more fat, such as cakes, cookies, pastries, and shortbreads, are more tender than low-fat yeast breads. Solid saturated fats, such as shortening and lard, which are 100% fat, make a more tender, flakier pie crust than butter or margarine, which are only about 80% fat. Solid fats hold more air bubbles, making them better for aerated cakes. The flavor of fat itself has an effect as well, think about how good olive oil tastes in a pizza but how awful it would taste in a carrot cake.

more fat

solid fats

butter

flavor of fat

Liquid: The Activator
The liquid used in a batter or dough activates all other elements listed above. It triggers the production of gluten, dissolves the sugar, sparks the chemical reactions necessary to rise. Liquids that contain fat (milk, cream, egg yolks and oil) tenderize, whereas liquids that contain acid (buttermilk and sour cream) affect the way dough rises, and break down the protein in the flour, thereby inhibiting the development of gluten